Mylor parish council clerk resigns over 'bullying'

In a statement read out on behalf of Mylor parish council on Monday, council chairman Rodney Myers said he was very sad to report that the clerk Melissa Kelly, had handed in her notice.

“This was as a result of a vicious and deeply personal campaign against her by some residents within the parish,” he said.

“Campaigners sought to discredit her personally, professionally and publicly and this is really unacceptable.”

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He said as an independent officer, the clerk to a parish council is required to constructively deliver council decisions, administer the council's business and to protect the council in law.

He said it was ‘deeply disappointing’ to find that in fulfilling these duties she had become the focus of extreme personal criticism which had not only undermined her within the parish but had now sought to do so in her other employment.

“I believe that now we must all reflect on our actions over the past two to three months and consider whether we have had any part to play in the events which led to a resignation,” he said.

“The council is an employer and every one of us has collective responsibility to provide a safe working environment for staff and to ensure that they are treated with respect.

“As councillors we are required to live up to standards in public life, to treat others with respect. We should have zero tolerance on bullying and harassment.

“It is a matter of profound sadness that we have been unable to expect the same of a few who lived in our parish. I, and I know my colleagues on the parish council, will miss the excellent work Melissa Kelly did for the advocacy since her appointment.”

Speaking after the statement was read out, Cornwall Councillor John Symons, said he has been on the parish council for 16 years but, over the last few months, had received sight of the ‘most disgusting and ill-mannered, vicious e-mails’ from some residents of Mylor.

“Out of nearly two and a half thousand residents there are a few bad apples trying to overturn the apple cart,” he said. “They tried their best by sending bullying, vile personally attacking emails to some parish councillors in a daily barrage hoping for the resignations to undermine the parish council.”

He said the ‘vile’ emails had also been sent to the clerk’s employers but thanked other councillors who had ‘stood strong’ against the people discrediting the good name of Mylor.

Speaking during public questions prior to the statement being read out, Mylor resident Fiona Ferguson accused the council of being a ‘Kangaroo court’ by changing the order of the agenda which would not allow her to answer potential criticisms of her.

“I am disturbed at the change of order because your statement is going to be of extreme interest because it must relate to the substansive business of the meeting which is to consider the resignation of the former clerk and the appointment of a new clerk,” she said.

“I would like to hear what you have to say about that, because what you have said in public is that I have caused the resignation of the clerk.

“You have written to me, you have written to my husband in breach of GDPR explaining that I have caused the resignation of the clerk.

“The clerk has also said in public that the reason for her resignation is a ‘disgusting, relentless, bullying campaign against me’, me being the clerk.

“I would be extremely interested in what you are going to say about that. And it seems to me that I have no right of commenting on this matter if you switch the agenda in an unfair way which doesn’t allow me to comment.

“Because I am simply stating my position and then you are going to go into private session which seems extremely unfair. Effectively, as you have said what you have said in public, you are carrying out a Kangaroo court of me because you criticised me as causing the loss of the clerk.

“I have been extremely criticised by this council in public and I am having no right to reply to whatever you are going to say this evening.

“I would have expected that the chairman would have apologised to me for what he has said in public to myself and my husband and other parties and that the clerk would do the same. So I would like to know what you are going to say about that. Should not be a matter of a change of agenda which is clearly unfair to me.”

Parish council vice chairman Chris Tidman said he hoped that the council would take time to reflect on how it had failed to protect the clerk during this ‘onslaught’.

“Mainly from ‘one person’," he said "but also from other residents of Mylor who hadn’t wasted an opportunity to pick the clerk up on something that they considered wrong, slightly incorrect or even debatable,” he said.

“It's also been totally wrong that members of a sub-committee, and or their partners, are amongst this group, and personally I feel that they should be ashamed of contributing to this stream of invective that’s so making the clerk's position untenable.

“Writing to her employer was the lowest act possible and I have to say I'm ashamed to be part of the parish, because of members who are prepared to put someone somebody's job in jeopardy in this way.”

Councillors voted by seven votes in favour, with one abstension, to adopt the statement read out by the chairman.